Reader’s Guide: Going Deeper

Unfinished Business

One Man's Extraordinary Year of Trying to Do the Right Things

After losing his job, Lee Kravitz – a man who had always worked too hard, too long, and too intensely – took stock of his life and realized just how disconnected he had become from the people who mattered most to him: his wife, his children, the circle of friends whose ranks had thinned over the years. Instead of rushing out to try to find a new job, he committed an entire year to attending to the most important things in his life, to reconnecting with those dear to him and to making amends.

In Unfinished Business, Kravitz takes us along on ten transformational journeys, among them repaying a thirty-year-old debt, making a long-overdue condolence call, finding an abandoned relative, and fulfilling a forgotten promise. Along the way, we meet a cast of wonderful characters and travel the globe—to a refugee camp in Kenya, a monastery in California, the desert of southern Iran, a Little League game in upstate New York, and a bar in Kravitz’s native Cleveland. In each instance, his act of reaching out opens new paths for both personal and spiritual growth.

All of us have unfinished business—the things we should have done but just let slip. Kravitz’s story reveals that the things we’ve avoided are exactly those that have the power to transform, enrich, enlarge, and even complete us. The lesson of this book is one applicable to us all: Be mindful of what is most important, and act on it. The rewards will be immediate and lasting.

Praise for Unfinished Business

“Lee Kravitz’s illuminating and uplifting memoir, Unfinished Business, is the perfect antidote to those middle-of-the-night sweats, when we toss and turn and torture ourselves with endless shoulda-coulda-wouldas. Achingly candid, this beautifully written and touchingly personal chronicle traces the author’s year-long journey of searching for the pieces he left behind, and how it led him to finding his better self. Kravitz has written a triumphant love letter to the human condition.”—Marlo Thomas, author of The Right Words at the Right Time

"Kravitz writes with an inspiring sincerity. His experiences are so familiar that it would be hard for readiers not to reflect on their own unfinished business -- and want to tend to it." -- The Washington Post

"Kravitz sets out on a mission, devoting a year to completing the unfinished business in his life, including making amends to the people he has hurt. Self-effacing, self-aware, he embarks on a journey in which he reconnects with a schizophrenic aunt neglected by their family, forgives a high school nemesis and honors a forgotten promise to an underprivileged African boy. What could have turned into a self-congratulatory, Disneyesque odyssey becomes an occasion for real kindnesses and growing sensitivity." -- TIME magazine

"Everyone complains about not having enough time – but what happens when we get it? Lee Kravitz used losing his job as a springboard to the human things he should have done. In so doing, he turned bad into bountiful. A great lesson for us all." -- Mitch Albom, author of Have A Little Faith.

“Unfinished Business is a rich, wise and powerful work that reminds us to be ever mindful of that which is truly important. By taking honest and courageous stock of his own unfinished business, Lee Kravitz calls on us all to live lives that honor our best selves. It is a timely and inspiring book." —Dave Isay, founder of StoryCorps